Propaganda
  
It is a cold day, no more sitting on the terrace
watching ships sailing by and dreaming of the old days.
With little to do, I watched on Netflix about the making of the **** party.
Time was hard in Germany people were looking for a saviour
****** and his henchmen came.
Sig Heil.
Peoples’ stupidity never amazes me, believed the propaganda
the promises of a better time.
Millions followed him, this man without charisma, but he promised
to make the country great and the people unthinkably followed
to the bitter end.
71, million people in the USA voted for Trump his lies didn´t matter
people preferred lies even when confronted with the truth
they still believe he could lead them into a great America.  
Now we have Biden.
The new president has promised many sane things, yet he
is regarded as weak
He lacks the panache of the liar.
And he, being a member of the political establishment, is not able to cut
the head of the snake
because he is a part of what is wrong with America.
Only groundbreaking revolution of what ails the USA, but it must
come from the people and not highjacked by oratory charlatan, can remedy
this sickness of the soul.
No single person is a god;
we have to turn to the Christian faith, with all its fault finding
the compass to rectitude.

The Cashflow

Money notes like staying in a bank vault
Rubbing against other denominations, or shall we say socializing.
That is why I keep the notes in my wallet as long as possible
Dislike breaking up a friendship, as my pocket is warm, it is a sin to let them out in the cold.
Thrift has nothing to with meanness.
A stranger has no feel for the inner life of money
So, don´t lend to anyone who asks.
The teller in my bank is a fine man with caring hands; he thinks like me.
Counts the money slowly, often twice, before handing them over with a sigh.

Cop26

To Glasgow, they came the high, mighty and the good
tarmacs full of private planes.
They all agreed we have to rescue the world
But first, we have to sell oil and coal
We can´t rely on windmills alone it is cold up north
Norway is set to have zero emissions in a few years.
Norway will still export oil; they have to have an income.
Brazil will stop logging the forest but not right now
Perhaps in 2150 or sixty at a stretch 70.
I was not there at the meeting, but it appears no one
spoke of the benefit of trains reliable prized.
As it is train tickets – since trains are privatized;
cost more than taking a short-haul plane ticket.
I don´t believe that anything they said is possible,
That is because we live in a capitalist thought- sets
grows and income is more important than flooding
and the disappearance of smaller island states.
Nothing will change before we sit fishing for cod
At the slopes of Himalaya.

look-alike

my look-alike
was a book-keeper
I was one too
But got bored,
Joined the navy
I have not seen my look-alike
For forty years.
There is a mirror
In the hall
Tell me of times gone.
He has sent me a thousand email
But it feels like
I have sent them myself.
I want to be free of him
He occupies
Too much space in my head
But, the chain isis unbroken
It has roots stretching
Across the globe.
Finally, we will
cross the river together.

Big houses have tall walls hiding the guarded behind
keep the beauty for themselves
Insects have no problem nor have birds, and cats go under the wall.
It is about keeping people out of what once was their garden and in the shifting political wind they became expelled.
The expelled people do have olive trees if they are not set afire
by a people calling themselves “settlers,” an incongruity.
Sometimes the people on the wrong side of the fence
get their homes bulldozed; yet, they cling on despite degradation.
They wait for the wind will turn in their favour.
One day it will.

Getting old together

There is an unspoken acceptance you share in silence
No need to be entertaining you are boring if you tell the same story twice.
Yet, you do.
They say there is much to learn from soap opera, a lecture I can do without
we have two TV, and I hold my tongue.
She sits in the living room, I sit in my study
we meet briefly when it is time for bed.
We speak about plans for tomorrow and the coming winter.
A kiss of a good night.
She goes to her bedroom
I go to mine.
We live in a peaceful home; the only sound is the ticking clock.

Hunger and horses

Spring 1945
A horse collapsed
In the street
Of hunger.
Skinny men in black
From doorways came.
Long knives
Tore into
Shivering flesh.
Hyenas.
A shot fired
The horse was dead
The hyenas
Would return.
An officer
Who loved horses
Released
The animal
From suffering.